Forget-Me-Not
by Iceinherheart
Summary: She was more important than he'd ever dreamed but he'd never realised how easily he could give it up.
1. Lost and Found

He had no idea what they had done to her. He'd simply found her this way, unconscious with a large head wound, lying in a pool of her own blood. Her wild, blonde curls where almost as ginger as her mother's due to the vast quantities of scarlet red coating it. The blood pool was getting larger.

Her message had been simple: 'help, X'. He'd been confused, yes. River never used the same way to contact him twice, and if you counted the incident at the library (which the Doctor always tried very hard not too) she'd used the physic paper four times now.

He'd gone anyway.

But this had not been what he'd expected.

He'd expected her to be standing at least; standing and shooting at some distant species of alien she'd picked a fight with. He'd expected her to turn to him when he opened the TARDIS doors, with a smile in place and a strangely sexy, _husky_ tone as she cooed 'Hello Sweetie' at him.

But the room was dark and besides River's broken body, only held two things. One was a chair, black in colour, with four thin metal bands to hold the arms and legs of its occupant still. The other item in the room was small, about the same side as the Doctor's hand spread wide but built to look like a ribcage. The ends of each rib was curled inwards into spikes and looked _lethal_.

He didn't even need to look at her to see what had happened.

Whatever the thing did to her, it wasn't done willingly- she'd struggled, ripped through the metal bonds and torn her wrists to shreds. They where bleeding too. The _thing _had been attached to her head and the spikes there to keep it in place. She'd fought with that too; pulling it off of, _out of _her and doing far more damage, which resulted in her collapse. Not a large head wound then- multiple smaller cuts. But they where deep. Very deep.

He'd left her in StormCage to keep them both safe. He'd never dreamt they'd do this.

He pulled at her arm gently until she was lead out on her back, giving him access to her blood drenched throat. Her pulse was still there- ridiculously weak, but there. She was alive.  
For now.

She was cold too. No, cold implied that she still had some warmth left in her when there was none. Freezing was a better adjective, the Doctor agreed with himself, even if it did remind him of death.

But simply cold or frozen to death his reaction would have been the same; he pulled the tweed jacket off again (he'd only just pulled it back out of storage when the physic paper had almost burnt a hole in the pocket) and wrapped it around her small frame the best he could given the circumstances. It was blood soaked in seconds.

As an after thought he tucked the metal ribcage into the pocket.

With one arm under her knees and the other supporting her head, he scooped her up, tucking her into his chest and his complex senses meant that her could hear - and to a lesser degree, _feel_ - her heartbeats as if they where his own. It was a small comfort.

The TARDIS doors both opened, without a touch or even a snap; she knew when her child needed her. It was a struggle to move her but not because of her weight or his own strength, not because of his co-ordination. TimeLords where strong, more than three times stronger then the average human and he really wasn't _that _gangerly. No.

He was shaking.  
Violently.  
He was scared. Scared for her.

The TARDIS was in his head, she always had been, ever since he first stole her - or she stole him. Closing his eyes allowed him to see the entire inside of the box, as long as she would let him that was. Five seconds ago there was nothing there, a blank screen in his mind where the inside of the TARDIS should have been; she'd blocked him from her mind to force him to concentrate on her daughter. Now, before he even opened the doors he could see the new double doors in the console room, white with round glass windows. The newly relocated medical bay, just off the console room. Bless his old girl. Helping to save her baby.

For once his girl was on his side; both fighting for their girl.  
The scanner flicked to life a he was anywhere near it.

_Melody Pond_  
_Human/TimeLord_  
_Female_  
_Head wounds - near fatal_  
_Possible brain damage (scans inconclusive)_

"'Inconclusive' Really?!" The Doctor shouted up to the time machine. Nothing had ever been inconclusive to the TARDIS. Nothing except Amy's pregnancy and well... Maybe River herself was just 'inconclusive' to the TARDIS. With a huff he climbed the stairs three at a time, pushing the white doors open with the shoulder River didn't have her head leant on.

The metal bed looked incredibly uncomfortable as he led her down, wishing there was a pillow in the room to tuck under he bleeding head. But then that probably wasn't a very good idea. The TARDIS had created this room to help her child, not hurt her: if there was no pillow it had to be for a reason.  
There really was nothing else he could do but clean up the blood and change her cloths. The cuts where already closing up with the TARDIS' help. He hated that. He felt useless, unable to do anything to help the woman he loved more thank anything. Because he did. After almost a hundred years of thinking he'd never feel such a way again, she'd appeared out of no where - only to rip his hearts apart again.  
He checked the scanner once more, unhappy with the fact there was no change. He retrieved the metal device from his pocket to run it under the TARDIS sensors. Processing the results seemed to take forever. He pulled up a chair to her bed side. His head was telling him to go, to find the cruel spiteful monsters that had done this and stop them. Stop them from repeating the process with anyone else he told himself. Not out of an act of revenge for his wife.

But he stayed. Catching these men, these monsters could wait.

They could wait. He wasn't going anywhere without his wife by his side.

* * *

The Doctor bolted upright with a gasp.

He'd fallen asleep. He'd decided to stay with River until she woke, so he'd fallen asleep. So in his rage at himself, which consisted of several untranslatable curses directed at both himself and the TARDIS, he failed to notice a certain blonde haired, green-eyed beauty sat up in her bed blinking at him. She cocked her head at him.

"Where am I?" Her voice came out cracked and dry and her eyes opened wide in surprise. She tried clearing her throat several times, but when each attempt failed he offered her the glass of water by her bed. She thanked him timidly.

"How do you feel?" He asked, steadying her shaking hand around the glass. She smiled.

"Dizzy." she told him, setting her empty cup down again. "What happened to me?"

"This thing happened." He offered her the metal ribcage from his pocket. He put it back after getting the scanner's results. "Ever seen it before?" She shock head at him "Never?" She shook her head at him again. The Doctor hummed with thought "Well, the TARDIS scanners said, _eventually_, that it's designed to look into a person's mind, link two minds together and transfer information from one person to another remotely, like an email between brains. It's rather amazing don't you think?" She stared at him, eyes wide and fearful and he chuckled slightly. "Right. I get it: tired and aching from nearly dying and all. Don't worry, "He ran a hand over her hair gently, his voice softening in the way it only ever would for her."I'll let you sleep, My Melody." he lent forward to kissed her forehead and turned towards the doors.

"Um, Can I ask you something before you go?" She was still timid, possibly from the shock of nearly dying (again), but it still didn't sit right in his hearts. River was suppose to be happy and smiling, not scared.

So he turned to her with a grin. "I believe you just, did my Dear. The correct structuring of that sentence would be 'May I ask you something before you go?' See? Better?" She rolled her eyes at him.

"_May_ I ask you a question?"

"Ask away my Dear!" He beamed at her. But her smile faded.

"Who are you?"

* * *

(Now edited)  
So, I've never done a multi-chapter fic before, so I'm not too sure about this...  
I'll get the next part up soon, when I get a half hour alone and I'm not to sure when that will be.  
But not too long.

X :)


	2. Waking Up

It was the Doctor's turn to stare at her, his eyes wide and fearful. _She didn't know him?_

"Don't you recognise me?" He asked softly. Surly she was just kidding. Maybe this was River's definition of a joke. He'd done something, he decided, he'd done something that had hurt her so she was getting revenge.

She shook her head.

_Possible brain damage (scans inconclusive)_

Possible brain damage  
Brain damage  
Oh.  
Oh God.

"You called me Melody." She looked up at him, blinking at him. She still looked scared. He didn't like that, Melody Pond was never scared. "Is that my name?" His eyes opened to an almost comical level.

"You don't know your own name?" His voice rose with his eyebrows, the squeak very unmanly. Not really what he'd been going for.

She shook her head. Oh God.

"Do you remember anything?" She shook her head again.

But then... She didn't know him. Hadn't he always, in the darkest part of his mind only the TARDIS knew even existed, sort of wished for this to happen? Of course, not like this, he'd never wish any harm on her. But for a chance to give her a better life. He knew that she'd never let him, she'd rather kill him again than lose him - not to say that made any sense - but for the chance to give her /her own life/, to not interfere... but she'd never...

But she didn't know him. She couldn't stop him.

Yes. This was his chance.

"What? 'Yes' what?" She repeated, cocking her head at him. Had he said that out loud?

"Yes. Why? Didn't you mean to?" She looked up at him, looking almost innocent. It really didn't suit her.

"Sorry." He told her. "I seem to be thinking aloud; I should stop that. I didn't mean to confuse you." Go on then" He grinned, perching on the side of her bed. "Ask away. Ask your questions and the answers shall be yours!" And when she laughed at him, she reminded him of his River.

"How can you guarantee you can answer them all?" She asked, leaning back against the head-rest of her little cot with a smug look on her face. She thought she'd caught him out with that, and to some degree she had: he hadn't thought of that. He wasn't supposed to know her - not that she knew that.

"I found your file." He stuttered, looking at her through his eye-lashes. He watched her inhale through her nose, something he'd seen her do many times before as her green eyes becoming darker. He glanced away. She didn't know him - he couldn't go around doing _that_ to her.

"Any information on you was in there." It really was the lamest excuse in the history of the universe but it was the he could think of. He'd blame it on being distracted by having to change everything he did around her, making tiny modifications to change the way she saw him, but that really only took half his concentration. It had more to do with the ache in his chest. It was persistent and more painful than the pounding head-aches he got from eating eggs.

"My file?" She asked, raising a single eyebrow in a way that was just so totally River. _There was that ache again._ He nodded dumbly at her.

"Okay, Sooo..." She paused for a minuet, thinking deeply. "Melody: Is that my name? You never answered me."

He thought for a second, before he nodded his head "Yes. Melody Williams." It was, after all, the name she was supposed to have.

She nodded back at him, understanding.

"How old am I?"

A pause "43"

"Do I have a family?"

He grimaced. " No."

"Who are you?"

"Me?" He asked "I'm no-one."

"Okay Mr. Nobody, how did I get here?"

"Ah." He raised a finger at her, wagging it at her, his face falling. "That, I have to admit, I have no clue. Actually, that's a lie. I know how you got _here_ in my medical room. I carried you. But only because of how hurt you where. There was so much blood Ri-Melody. But why you where here - here being where I found you - I have no idea."

He'd almost slipped up, nearly called her River and how would her explain that? That would be a mess. And _that_ was an understatement.

"Your medical room?" She echoed and he had to smile slightly at that. She did pick up on then strangest of things.

"Well, my space-ship's medical room technically but it's my shop, so logically it's _my_ medical room." There was an irritated voice in the back of his mind; the TARDIS didn't fully agree with him. River nodded her understanding and picked up the metal devise he'd forgotten he'd left by her bed side not five minutes ago. It felt like a life time ago. "What's-

"Ahhh! No!" He yelled. He jumped towards her to take it from away her but she scrambled back, afraid of him. His hearts tightened in his chest. He didn't like that thought: _her_ afraid of _him_?

"Sorry." Her voice was small, so small, and it was unsettling. "I only wanted to know what this has to do with," She waved her arm towards her stomach and then to her head "my current condition - And my splitting headache." Her voice lifted towards the end of her sentence and he could almost _see_ her mind at work, deciding that he offered her no threat. He, however, couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Does it hurt?" He asked, brushing two fingers against her fore head as gently as he could, pulling his mind away from the familiarity of her own as he did. She drew him in, in every way possible, the desire to touch her almost annoyingly potent. She nodded up at him, and he felt the movement of her head thought the two fingers on her skin rather than saw her. There wasn't much he could see around her.

As he turned his back to search the cabinets behind him, he let himself ponder; if she didn't know him now, she would never have called him to the library all those years ago. She wouldn't have … that day would never have ended the way it did, no. But would he have still crashed landed in Amelia's garden, he wondered. Would he have still taken Amy with him? Would she have still married Rory? Would Melody still have been born? He was sure the answers of all these questions would still be 'yes'. She would still exist, but as Melody, not River. A self correcting paradox.

The bottle of painkillers was tucked into the corner of the cupboard, next to a bottle of Aspirin. He paused, one eighteenth of his brain wondering why he had it, while the rest was in the state of epiphany. She was part TimeLord. He couldn't just let her go, there where many things that could cause her ignorance to injure her - or worse. Even if he chose to ignore all the possible ruptures him time his plan could cause, this was going to be a lot harder than he had originally planned.

He handed her the bottle and refilled her glass of water, instructing her to take only one, putting two of the three she had poured onto her hand backing to the bottle himself. He grinned to himself when she rolled her eyes at him. He kissed her cheek when she thanked him.

"So what do we do?" She was looking up at him with a single eyebrow raised and he could almost kid himself that his River was back with him, that she remembered being his, despite his objections to being _hers_.

"Pardon?" He pulled a face – he couldn't remember talking to he about any of the plans he'd come up with.

"Sorry you said '_But why you where here I have no idea_'" She imitated his lower voice quite well actually despite how terrible he was at imitating her… but the, River had always been better than him at most things. Not that he'd ever have admitted that to her.

When he'd had the chance.

"I just assumed that you wouldn't sit around doing nothing." She continued sweetly and he jerked his eyes from when they'd fallen on the floor. "You just didn't seem the type."

"You're absolutely right." He grinned at her "I was going to find out what happened here. Don't panic though, Miss Williams, I can take you home first." Were ever she wanted home to be.

But she looked thoughtful, staring at his bowtie. "Actually, can I come with you?" She hedged, looking up and her too-green eyes met his. "You said that these people tried to hack into my brain, right? Well, I'd like to meet them."

He scratched at his cheek. He knew better than to try to persuade River to do something that she didn't want to or not to do something she wanted to. But if being in that place, if she remembered… "Please?" She whispered and it was so much more than begging.

"Come on then." He grinned, pointing his head to the door. She jumped down off the bed and ran to his side.

And as she walked out the door beside him, her small little hand grasped his.

* * *

I'm soo sorry this took so long but people seemed abdiment about not leaving me at home alone... Not to mention how long this chapter took to write, the amount of mental blocks I had!  
I hope the next chapter wont take so long!  
X


	3. Deductions

The ever lasting tunnels of the TARDIS corridors seemed to amuse her to no end, if her giggles that echoed around in his head each time they turned into yet _another _corridor where anything to go by. "This must be the biggest ship in the universe!"she'd exclaimed and, unable to help himself, he reached over to gently press his finger into her small nose. She didn't flinch away from him this time, and he was unsure how to feel about that. Selfish or selfless.

He had no doubt about what she was thinking as they stepped out of the front doors. She'd turned at his side, her hand twisting in his where he was still clasping it, to get a good look at his ship. He'd chuckled softly as her eyes widened.

"_No Way!_"

He'd seen it all before - the way his friends ran around the back of the small blue box, trailed hands across the wood, with faces of shock or amusement or, even once, fear. But she'd always know about the TARDIS' transdimensional properties and her stunned look eased the pain in his chest slightly. Not completely, the nag still remained until he feared it would never leave him.

"It's…" She turned to face him, eyes agleam, a large smile spread across her face as if no bad had ever happened in the universe. Well, he supposed it hadn't for her. Oh how he envied her.

"Bigger on the inside?" He offered with a giggle, completing her unfinished sentence for her. Not that she was incapable that was, just that he took delight in knowing what she would say before she did. Not that it was hard.

"No." His grin fell of his face "It's – _She's_ beautiful."

His eyes opened slightly as he scolded his space ship in his mind. _What did you tell her? _He only received a defensive hum in return.

"Because all vehicles are female, right? I think that's right. I remember it from somewhere." Her eyes rose to his. "Is it possible for me to get my memory back?"

"Probably." He dismissed it with a wave of his hand quickly as he walked around the back of the TARDIS, attempting not to over think his problem. It didn't work.

"Do you know anything about me?" She asked, popping her head around the wood behind him. "Personally, I mean."

"Nope." He lied. _Yes_. "Never met you before in my life."

"And what, already sneaking me into you bigger on the inside spaceship? Someone's hopeful Sweetie." She was still teasing, still his River somewhere under all that hair. He smiled internally, despite the blush on the outside.

"I was… am… I wouldn't… I was helping!" He spluttered quickly, his cheeks scarlet. If his River could see him, she'd be rather disappointed. _Haven't you known me long enough, Doctor Dear?_

"I know." She laughed, skipping away to plop herself in the chair in the room. Her chair. "So where are we going? What do we do?"

"We look." He pulled his screwdriver out of his pocket as he turned to her. "This is my – OI! Get off there!"

"What!" She shrieked, jumping up and away from the chair and towards him with the panicked look back on her face as she grabbed his arm. "What is it?"

"Look." He pointed at the broken cuffs with the screwdriver. "Broken metal. Very dangerous." She promptly stole his sonic screwdriver.

"What's this?" She asked, twisting it in her hands. This River was very easily distracted. And very grabby.

"Oi!" He reached for the instrument in her delicate hands, only connecting with thin air as she snatched it back, dangerously close to… places. "That's mine!"

"What is it?"  
"Mine!"

"What. Is. It?" She growled in his face and _when_ had she come so close? Not in any timeline he remembered. She looked angry. Angry and pretty and so very much like his River, like the woman he remembered. Like the woman who remembered him. Like the woman who loved him. "Doctor!"

"A sonic screwdriver." He admitted finally, taking one, two, three steps away from her. "It's very useful."

"For what?"  
"Lots of things. And it is very complicated and confusing and I'd thank you to recognize the fact that it is also _mine_ and give it back right this instant," He paused for a second before forcing out in the same irritated tone "Melody Williams."

She stuck her bottom lip out at him as she pushed it back into his hands muttering "Stupid thing anyway. Who needs a screwdriver that's sonic? What's it used for anyway, putting up shelves?" He chuckled under his breath. She was still as predictable as ever.

She knelt in front of the chair like a religious person would in prayer as brushed her finger carefully over the broken metal. "This has been forced." She told him "Something was pushed up through the metal and ripped it in half." She sat back down in the chair and set her arm between the two shards of metal. "Had to be an arm. Someone tore through this. So said someone has to be very strong. And probably dangerous if they had to be held this way. But…" She stood up and faced him "Can that do-hicky of yours bend metal? " She asked cocking her head.

"Screwdriver." He muttered handing it back to her swiftly, eager to hear her deduction. She set to work quickly, automatically knowing how to work his sonic, like she'd never forgotten how. When she handed it back the two ends on the shards met like they were supposed to, like they had before she pulled them apart.

"They'd have to be very small." She noted, glancing at the gap. "Small and strong are a bad combination, not very easy to spot. I doubt I'd even manage to fit my…" She trailed off, glancing down at her own wrist. "Actually… Doctor, come over here. Do you think that…?"

**BANG.**

The door flew open.

"Put your hands up and stay where I can see you!"

* * *

I'm not to happy with this but I at least owe you few readers _something. _I had this finished on Friday but people wouldn't leave me alone for fine minutes! I'm also aware that not very many people like the last chapter and I hope this one is more to your pleasing. It's very short and kinda just a filler and it took a Loooong time to get this up and I am very sorry!

Please enjoy! xx


	4. Prisoners

The guards in front of the duo seemed unnecessarily heavily armed to the Doctor, with at least five or six guns each. All eight of them. He was fairly certain that even River had never carried so many at once, but then it wasn't impossible either; River had a way of slipping the guns she owned right under his nose, the clever Minx.

"Who are they?" She asked timidly and he looked back at her. Her hands where up beside her head, fingers bent towards her palms and she looked scared again. Perhaps not having her full memory made thing scarier, the Doctor theorised; River would never have been this scared if she was herself. But Melody and River seemed to be two different people.

"Guards." He told her truthfully. "Didn't I tell you we where in a prison?"

"What?" It came out of her like a squeak. She managed to look mouse-like too, like it was planned. But her wide eyes told a new story. "No! No you most defiantly did _not_ tell me we where in a prison!"

"Shut it." One of the faceless (not literally) men who had crept around behind them snapped. They had formed a ring around the pair, tightly closing them in all sides. One of the guards, and the Doctor could never be sure if it was the one who spoke or not, jabbed the barrel of the gun he held into River's waist, hard. She squeaked in surprise and swung around, bringing her foot into contact with his knee and her knee into his chest and he bent in shock. He ended up in a pile on the floor.

It was not good idea.

The guards moved quicker after that. Resenting hands where forced into cuffs violently and the two TimeLords where forced out the door. No-one paid attention to the TARDIS.

"Oops." River muttered to him as they where pushed down the dark, damp hall the Doctor was almost accustom to. He found himself laughing at the ridiculous face she pulled. She resized another poke from the gun at her back.

"Leave her." The Doctor told the guard at the end of the gun. Walking forward while looking back had always prove a challenge to the Doctor in this regeneration, not that it was something he did often, and he ended up walking into two of the guards. Irritated at their antics and his co-ordination problem, The Doctor stopped and turned to face said guard personally.

"She hasn't done anything. Well she knocked one of your_ mates_ to the floor but she didn't touch you, did she? Actually, it could have been you, to be honest; you lot all look the same, I've never been able to tell you apart. But then even if it was you she kicked, you're still not allowed to hurt her, believe me I checked all the rules of this place aeons ago, So please keep your pointy, pointless, gun to yourself, before I get the lovely lady to knock _you_ out."

The Doctor flicked his head to the left, to move his hair from his eyes in substitute of his handcuffed hands. It fell back in his face again. "That goes for all of you." He growled at the listening men at his sides. "Come along, Melody." He called her to his side as he span and started walking.

"So" He whispered to her with a grin. "How'd I do? Sound threatening?"

* * *

"Has anyone ever told you that you ramble?" She asked as she walked beside him, a cocky look about her. He couldn't tell if it was in her eyes, her mouth or just her whole being but the familiar whatever it was forced him to smile at her.

"Quite a few people actually." He told her with a wink "They never stop."

"You can't make me do anything you know." She told him conversationally as they turned another corner on the way to who knows where.

"Pardon?" He looked down at her again quickly, his neck almost clicking at the speed. She'd lost him again.

"_'So please keep your pointy gun to yourself, before I get the lovely lady to knock you out'_" She mimicked "Implies that you have some control over me to make me knock them out. You have none." She was looking straight ahead, away from him, but he could have sworn she was smiling.

"I said pointless, actually." He huffed and she smiled wider.

"You said 'pointy, pointless', _actually_. And I'm not all that lovely, but thank you for the compliment, regardless." He scoffed at her, eyes widening as his feet slowed. He ended up with the gun in his back again.

"Not lovely?" He huffed to the guard on his left "I swear she's insane." He got no reply.

Three more corridors of no conversation was starting to get boring. Huff worthy boring. Which annoyed both River and the guards - Immensely.

"Stop it." River snapped at him as she kicked a foot out at him. The Doctor nearly tripped over said foot while River stumbled. If she hadn't been so irritated with him, the Doctor believed the sequence of events would have had River in stitches.

"You made that ridiculous noise five times in the last two minuets. Shut up." She told him forcefully. He huffed again.

"I swear, if you do that again I will find someway to hit you." She told him coolly, and he had to marvel at her excellent hearing. He'd barely heard that last sigh.

"I didn't do anything!" He lied easily, years of practice forcing him to keep a straight face as she stopped to stare at him. The guards stopped for _her_, of course.

"You sighed, huffed, exhaled, what ever you want to call it, exactly five minuets and fifty-one seconds after I told you to stop." She growled at him. She was correct of course, perfectly correct down to the seconds in a way humans had yet to perfect; it was a TimeLord trait. He watched her face closely, waiting for her to realise what she had done.

It took a while longer than he would have guessed. But at last her face contorted. "How did-" It was the guard closest to her that interrupted her with a hand on her shoulder and a soft reminder of the fact that they had to keep moving. The Doctor rounded on him with a glare and the hand disappeared.

"Melody." He asked quietly, mindful of the guards loitering around them. "Talk to me. What's wrong?" _Like you don't know_, his mind told him, _Like you don't know what you've done to her._

"I wasn't counting." She told him just as softly. "I don't know how but I know the times exactly, without looking at clocks or timing or anything. I just know." She looked over at the guards quickly "Nine minuets and four seconds since they found us. Eight minutes and forty-four seconds since they 'cuffed us. Eleven minuets and thirty-eight seconds since we left your ship. Sixteen minuets and twenty-two seconds since I woke up." She blinked quickly, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. "I don't even know if it's normal or not."

It was instinct that told him to wrap her up safe and warm in his arms, to tell her the truth. It was only and strong mind and an even stronger pair of handcuff that stopped him from doing either. So he twisted his back, legs and arms uncomfortably so the she would look at him. "Melody. If it comes naturally and you don't have to think about it, it's probably natural. And as for normal," He grinned at her and got a timid smile in return. "Why wants to be _normal_?" He spat the word with enough hatred that she started to giggle, only faintly, but it was there and he felt better instantly, the weight lifted from his chest.

"Enough." A guard snapped, approaching from around the last corner they had turned and the Doctor recognised him as the guard who had given River the scar on her back. He shoved hard at River's back sharply, ignoring any and all arguments and ordered for the same to be done to the Doctor. The inpatient guards shoved the pair around another corner, and the Doctor's hearts faltered as he stopped in place, recognising the open cell in front of the group. Cell 106.

The original guard who marched River at the front of the group shoved her again, almost twice as hard as the fist time and she slipped, falling against the leg of the bed inside the cell. The blue book on top fell beside her.

The TimeLord's strength was enough to match the one man, but not enough for the three men who forced him to turn around and walk back the way they'd come. It didn't stop him trying to fight.

But as the metal door slammed shut, The Doctor stopped fighting. But he fought hard when he heard the guard's voice. Defeat was a horrible think, the Doctor realise, but he knew he'd been defeated. Knew everything he'd worked for in the last Sixteen minuets and twenty-two seconds since – well, Seventeen minuets and eleven seconds now – had been destroyed:

"River Song. You are under arrest for murder and three attempts to escape from StormCage Containment Facility. You will remain here until someone comes to collect you."

The charge for the third attempt to escape was execution.

* * *

This took ages and I'm sorry for that and that it's so short and Cliffhangers! Argh I hate them so I'm very sorry, and it was never in the original plan but Ah!

Can I just say a big thank you to Cristiane Silva, who gave me the confidence to write quicker and gave me the hope that there are people reading this when I thought you'd all given up on me!

X


	5. Lonely books

The guards of StormCage really where idiots, the Doctor decided as he watched them round the corner. What sort of prison locks people up without checking if they had anything they could use to escape on them? Not that it was something he could complain about, quite the contrary; he was quite relieved.

The Doctor pulled both his wrist in opposite directions the best he could in his position and the handcuffs broke in the middle. A quick flash of the Screwdriver that no-one had thought to take off him had the two halves open and on the floor. Another flash and the door clicked open. A few seconds to insure he was alone before he snuck through the door and turned back the way the guards had dragged him. Three blocks from River's cell.

It wouldn't take long - a couple of minuets at most. The guard hadn't given a time, which was annoying to say the least. But he did have to go back to the warden's office _and_ come back and do what ever he had to do in the office as well. 106 cells where between River's cell and the office block, along with nine one-meter think walls and three high security, dead-locked doors. Three and a half minuets one way – seven minuets both ways – approximately five minuets for what ever paperwork StormCage actually did... Twelve minuets.

Well, Eleven now. The number was haunting him.

* * *

The darkness in the prison was eerie and the rain certainly made sure the place lived up to its name. StormCage.

But the place seemed almost familiar to Melody. The cold air seemed almost natural to her unnaturally hot body, the rain was so easy to tune out it was like she'd practiced it. It was just the handcuffs that seemed to be annoying her. She wiggled and pulled at them, kneeling up now rather than sitting on her heals. There wasn't even room to flex her arms, and the strength in her arms was beginning to -

**_Crack_**

Melody froze. She hadn't… Had she? Her arms fell to her sides, no longer clamped together so painfully – the broken remains of the cuffs hung limply from her thin wrists. The metal bar between the cuffs looked like they'd been hit with an axe, the brake was so clean.

She had.

_She just ripped metal. _

Sliding two fingers of her right hand between the remaining metal on her left wrist, Melody hocked the back around towards herself. The metal split in her hand easily. There wasn't much effort involved really. Like cutting through butter, the other link fell apart as easily as the first.

Rubbing her wrist she spotted the blue book that had nearly fallen on her head. She picked it up and sat on the small bed in the cell, as far away from the leg she had hit as possible. It was a small book, the size of a planner or Diary, made for easy carrying. The front and back where covered in eight square panels each, it looked almost like the box in the chair-room, the bigger on the inside one.

She eased the book open the first page. It was blank… No it was the back of the book. She flipped it over, to the front this time.

**_Crack_**

The book was on the floor over the other side of the cell, closed again, while Melody was back on the floor too. She raised her hand to her clavicle, pressing against her uneven heart beat, breaths coming irregularly.

"Bloody thunder." She whimpered to herself, reaching across the gap between her hand and the book.

"It used to scare me as a boy too."

She squeaked, pressing back against the bed again, hand pressed to her chest _again_.

"Don't threat," The bow-tie clad man behind the bars called out to her with a cheeky grin "I'm not the one they've sent to kill you. Although we do only have four minuets left, so you might want to hurry it up."

"Kill me?" Melody repeated as the Doctor pulled the glowing device (a sonic screwdriver, she remembered he'd called it) out of his pockets and pointed it at the bars. Seconds later the door had swung open.

"Don't worry about it," he called to her as he walked away "It won't take long to fix. Hurry up then. Three minuets!"

It should have sacred Melody, how quickly she jumped up to follow him, but there was something about him, something different – something alien.

Before running after him, she tucked the blue book into her pocket as an afterthought.

* * *

Well that took incredibaly long for such a short chapter... sorry x


	6. Prison Trek

"Why didn't you tell me about the prison?" The call came from behind him, not by far but enough for the Doctor to be uncertain of the distance. She was almost hesitant.

"Wasn't important." He answered shortly, holding his head high and facing forward. He had no idea where the tension had come from.

"'Wasn't important' like hell it wasn't" She grumbled under her breath and the Doctor grinned to himself. He'd missed this side of her. "So where are we going?"

"Back to the TA- to my spaceship. We need to get out of here." He huffed. He needed to get her out of the way of anything that could remind her of what she was, they had already come far to close for anyone's good.

"But there are things I still want to look at; there are things I still don't understand. Doctor please-" She pulled him to a stop, board of him walking away from her as she talked "-These are the people who tried to hack into my brain, and I can't remember anything because of that. I want to know why, if only to see if it helps me to remember who I am."

_Yes_, the Doctor thought, _that's exactly what I want to stop_.

"To dangerous." He huffed, turning away in an attempt to avoid her eyes. He hand collided with his shoulder. Hard. "Ow!"

"Surly that's my decision to make." She snarled as her face curled up in distaste. "Not yours. You can run away in your stupid blue box while I go looking for answers."

"With a whole prison full of guards after you blood? Do you think you can just walk around here as if you own the place like they haven't already called on your head? We should have heard the alarms by now, we've been lucky to get out when I'm curtain that they already know you're gone. If you stop being an idiot for five minuets we can get you out, Alive. Does that not mean anything to you?" He hissed back, wary of the empty prison cells around them as if they might come alive and eat them. It probably happened on one of the planets he'd been on in his long life.

"Like you care?" Her voice rose from a squeak to a furious roar at his interrogations. "Like it's any concern of yours if I die? I'm no concern of yours at all. You're just some nobody who, for all I know, erased my memory yourself."

"Can you shut up please? Keep shouting like that and we'll both lose out heads." It came out rather levelled for the anger that welled in the Doctor body.

"Fine." She huffed; blonde curls flicked over her shoulder "You want me to shut up? Fine. I'll go. I'll find my own way away from here." She turned to disappear back the way they had come. It was almost a reflex - how quickly his hand grabbed at her wrist, pulling her back to him.

"I won't hurt you." He told her softly, faces inches away from each other. "But they will, if they catch you. So stay with me and I can keep you as safe as possible."

She nodded at him, pulling her arm from his grip and walking ahead of him, her face turned away from him. At least she was going in the right direction.

"You have questions." This itself wasn't a question.

"Yes"

"Go on then." She turned to face him, and eyebrow arched as she calculated a good place to start. He stopped, tugging her with him so she wouldn't fall over walking backwards.

"We're in a prison. We're inmates here."

"No. You're an inmate; I'm just… passing through. But that's easily fixable." He grinned at her and she crossed her arms at him.

"He called me River."

"These aren't really questions. You know that, don't you?" He was hedging, avoiding the not-question, with little success. Both eyebrows rose this time.

"'Why?' is a question."

He turned his back to her to start walking again, offering a quick shrug of his shoulders to her where she watched him go. "Must have mistaken you for someone else."

"With this hair? Could you mistake me for anyone else?" The Doctor smiled softly when she couldn't see. He'd never mistake her for anyone. "You're not telling me everything are you?"

"Of course I am. Everything I know, I'd tell you." _Not._ "We just need to get back to my spaceship."

She seamed to agree. The silence was almost unbearable as they walked through the endless corridors, almost a world away from the comfortable lack of sound from the TARDIS corridors not half an hour ago.  
Until...

"Next left." He turned to face her, walking backwards unwisely.

"Sorry?"

"Your spaceship. The room we where in twenty-three minuets ago is where I assume you're trying to get to. Next left then right, three corridors down to cell 591 then turn left again. Directions are quite simple, actually."

He smiled at her, the TimeLord qualities he knew and loved so much resurfacing. "Apparently." She smiled back, her green eyes locking on his, still full of curiosity and happiness, all the anger gone now.

Her directions where (obviously) correct and finally the TARDIS was in front of the two, the yellow light from the windows lighting the dark room. River, predictably, ran straight to the chair in the room.

"This was my chair, wasn't it?" She asked softly, while he was in the middle of hugging the TARDIS.

"Pardon?" He released his grip on the TARDIS and turning to face her. She was sat back in the chair, one wrist slotted between the still open cuffs, the other tracing the metal of the closed one. "Why- Why would it be your chair?"

"The cuff sizes." She stood again, and pulled him over to the chair, avoiding the puddles of blood coating the floor. "Look. The gaps are the same size as my writs, and I told you that it had to be someone small but strong, yes? How do you think I got out of the handcuffs? _I pulled them apart_. Literally." He watched as she pulled something from the head-rest of the chair. "The hair is a dead give-away." She held a blonde curl between her fingertips.

"Which only leaves one option." She dropped the curl as her hands fell to her hips. "You lied to me."

* * *

Soooo... Chapter 6. Gawd!  
'A stupid chapter in which nothing much happens' - that's the summery of this one.  
X


	7. Photographs

"How did I lie to you?" The Doctor's back touched the TARDIS walls as the small, feisty blonde approached, eyes almost black with fury.

"You said you didn't know what happened to me, well apart from that thing which you claim tried to hack my brain."

"It did. They did, those guards attacked your mind."

"Why?!"

"How would I know?!"

"You seem to think you know everything. Surly you'd know why someone would want to hurt me."

He couldn't answer that. Of course he knew what they where trying to get out of her. Information about him and how she escaped so often. Of course it was.

"Right." She snarled. "I'm going to go. Good luck, _Doctor_."

"I thought we agreed it would be safer if you came with me." He called to her back as she walked away. She turned back to him.

"I changed my mind."

And she was gone.

* * *

he tunnels where colder than before and walking alone was incredibly strange. The walls seemed to blur and the greys became almost lighter and the ceiling seemed to leak. Melody wiped an arm across her face, wiping the illogical tears from her face and the corridors returned to how they looked the last time she'd walked through them.

There had been something - She had been curtain of that. He looked at her differently, like he really cared about her. He wouldn't have hurt her; she knew that, he was good – mostly - and she could have trusted him.  
But she knew from the moment that she woke that he was lying to her about something. She still had no idea what that something was and considering the face that he had probably disappeared off in his spaceship (however it worked), she'd probably never know.

She was crying again. How pathetic.

There was a room just off the main hall, with a bright white light she could see by and this door had no window, unlike the others. The room was empty too, which was always good. And easy to lock, which was even better.

It was a good place to think. Somewhere she could hide away and not have to worry about the guards trying to find her or the idiot in a bowtie finding her either. Not that he was looking for her. Lord knows how far way he was now.

Sinking into the chair behind the desk, Melody noticed the photograph on the desk. It was an old fashioned paper picture with a plain wooden frame of two children, a blonde and brunette. The youngest, the blonde, looked to be about four, while her sister (they where obviously sisters, from their familiarity with each other, evident in the way they where holding each other, and the similarity – the same eyes, jawbone, nose and curls) was seven at the latest.

The other picture on the desk, the more resent one, depicted the same two girls. The older of the two was now at least eighteen and had both her arms wrapped around her sixteen year old sister. They where so similar to the younger versions of themselves, yet they hadn't changed at all. It was almost poetic.

There was a book on the desk, a small black book that looked a lot like… Oh!

Melody pulled the blue book out of the pocket of her black jacket, she'd forgotten about it. Odd really, considering how aware she'd been of it on the way back to the 'chair room'. _Stupid name, 100 points for creativity, Melody._

She ran her fingers over the front cover of the book – she was 99.8% curtain that it was the front this time – as she pondered. She didn't like the name Melody. Was it a family name? That would be the only reason she wouldn't change it; if it was tied to her – apparently dead – family.

The blue book was easy to open, the well-worn leather pliable as fabric.

As easily as falling into a past life.

* * *

It wasn't hard to tell which way she'd gone. The signs where everywhere the Doctor looked, the most obvious being the time signature she left behind her, that all TimeLords left behind them. Her human DNA did nothing to shield it.

The Doctor ducked into the shadowed room to his left as yet another group of guards turned the corner. The third lot in the last few minuets. It was beginning to get tedious.

He turned the corner the guards had come around… and the trail ended. Dead. Stopped.

Gone.

"Melody?" He called out softly, kidding himself that she'd actually answer him like she used to. There was light, artificial light obviously, creeping around the edges of a door to the Doctor's left. It was a faint light, and anyone with less adequate sight would miss it. River would have seen it too. He pressed an ear to the door and tried to find a noise in the silence - the door was coated with time energy, she had to be inside. It was also locked from the inside.

The sonic opened the door easily and the room behind it was empty, the two photographs on the desk knocked over.

No, he was wrong. The room wasn't empty. The body was slumped behind said desk. The blue book left open beside her.


	8. The Past

_The eerie cell seemed to grow colder as the guards turned the corners, coming from both sides. Interrogation time again apparently._

_The bars in the front of the cell swung open (again) and (not so suddenly) a minimum of twelve men, all dressed in black and armed to the teeth, surrounded her._

_"Hello boys. What do you want from me this time?" It came out exactly as she wanted it to: Teasing, seductive and cheeky. It was her in a nut shell. But of course she got no reply from the men; she rarely did._

_She didn't bother reminding them (again!) that she didn't need the handcuffs and that she was perfectly able to walk rather than being shoved down deserted hallways. There were times when she wondered whether she was the only prisoner, until they'd proved her wrong._

_But they soon reached the interrogation room and she was forced past the door, into another corridor, and almost half the prison away from said room._

_"Where are we going then boys?" She called out to them as they lead her into a dark room, in which the only light shone from the door cracks. The light flicked on above them and the room flickered into appearance. Irritatingly, there wasn't much in the room, just a chair – not really what River had been hoping for. It didn't really give her much to go on._

_"How do you escape so often, Dr. Song?" She was forced into the chair, her arms and legs held down as the metal clamped down around her ankles and wrists. The guard that had spoken was the one who was the closest. He was the youngest, newest and sweetest. "Tell us. We don't want to hurt you-" She was fairly certain this wasn't true for at lest half of them "-Tell us and this will stop. Please."_

_"Silly boy." She laughed, watching the new guards enter the room, one who held a black silhouette. "I'm not scared of them."_

_And the men where behind her, touching her hair as she wiggled, fighting his grip on her head. And something cold. Then there was the pain, far too much pain for her small frame to handle. But the screams wouldn't come and the guards were gone and her muscles contracted. She needed out._

_But, by Rassilon it hurt._

_So much._

* * *

Such a short chaptrer. Gasp!  
big thanks to WholockedAnglophile for editing and fixing the mistakes my slow brain doesn't realise are even there!  
Not far to go now!  
X


	9. Truthful lies

The desk was easy to clear. One sweep of the Doctor's lanky arm had the paper and trinkets littering the floor, the 51st century glass unharmed in its frame. With no time to pick anything up, he turned and pulled River's limp body into his arms to lay her on the table. He pushed her hair away from her face and ran his screwdriver across the length of her body. She was fine, apparently, with only spiking brain waves to suggest otherwise and her moving eyes told him that she was just dreaming. She didn't do that very often. She whimpered softly, and her brainwaves showed she was waking up. The Doctor, unwisely, leaned closer.

She woke with a start, flipping herself off the table with the grace and agility he had but was unable to show. She crouched back on the floor, ready to spring like the lion her hair made her look like, one hand pressed to the diary as if it was a lifeline. He raised his hands to her, like he was attempting to both show his surrender and calm her together. She blinked up at him, confused.

"Doctor?" She sounded terrified, like she didn't understand too many things to feel safe. The Doctor faltered when he realised that was exactly like it was.

"Sorry." He whispered into the quite room, his fantastic hearing recognising the four heartbeats in the room and her gentle pants - he wasn't breathing currently. "Didn't mean to scare you like that. I was worried about you; you weren't breathing." He clarified as she stood, picking the blue book from the floor.

He spared it a glance, realising that she must have been carrying it with her. It was in her cell, it couldn't have gotten here any other way. But she was giving him a look. He knew that look: it was her ´I've done something I know you won't like but I don't know whether too regret it or not` look. It was normally followed by "I may (but I may not have) just killed it... but only because he was trying to kill us first."

He allowed himself a small wince, unsure if it still meant the same.

"Are you okay?" She nodded, the corner of her lips working up into a smile she couldn't, or wouldn't, contain.

"What are we going too do about the guards who are trying to kill me?" She asked frankly reminding him of the old River and his hands twitched because they wanted to be on her hips, where they should've been. He shrugged.

"Get you out." He made for the door, eager to do just that, and missed her shaking her head.

"No." She told him, stubborn to the last "they said murder, I need to be here, clearly, but I just don't fancy being killed." He winced, she sounded like his wife. He composed himself and turned to face the nearly stranger in a familiar body.

"I can't leave you here," He argued and then her hands were on her hips.

"Well, I can't leave! I killed someone!" She said it so casually, minus the rise in her voice as she got angry with him.

"You don't remember doing it!" She winced then, before she seemed to control herself.

"I still did it." She snapped, as angry at him as he was at her.

"Melody, I -"

"Don't call me that!"

Her violent outburst seemed shock them both but he raised a simple eyebrow at her.

"What else would I call you?" He asked slowly, and she cursed under her breath. He pretended not to hear her.

"I've decided I don't like the name," she told him calmly "I think I might change it." A quick dazzling smile and he forgot to question that.

A few uncomfortable moments later he rubbed his hands together in his usual fashion and straightened his back, eager to continue.

"Come on them." He beamed casually reaching for the door handle. "Let's -"

"Actually." She's cut him off, his hand frozen on the handle. "Maybe going back to the TARDIS isn't the best idea right now."

The Doctor almost stopped breathing.

"Pardon?" He exhaled. Had she? Had he imagined it? Had he told her? No she was grinning, her normal, cheeky face starring at him, her eyes twinkling and so full of love he wondered how he'd missed it.

"Melody?" He asked softly again, playing it safe the way River always told him to. She should be proud of him. Her eyes tightened slightly but her smile got brighter.

"Call me River." She cooed "My husband does."

* * *

He should have been happy - or irritated, at the very least - that his plan hadn't worked. He should have said something, done something, smiled perhaps.

But he stared, too angry to move.

"How long have you known?" He asked, attempting to keep his voice flat. Had she tricked him? He asked as much.

"No." She promised. "But I think I always known somewhere in me that I knew you. Loved you even." She's stepped forward towards him "I remembered when I read my diary - that's why I passed out. Sensory overload. I wanted to see if you could tell the difference."

He stalked towards her, very much the oncoming storm. River, on her part, submitted, allowing him to back her into the gray wall behind her. He stood far too close to her to be proper, putting only inches between them, if only to see how she'd react. Her smile never faltered.

"Well River Song," he drawled happily, letting the steely expression drop off his face. "Are you sure you want to be an Archaeologist? I'm sure the theatres would still take you." She grinned.

"Well, you of all people should know about my fascination with old things, my love."

He broke then. To be honest, he was very impressed (and she should've been too) that he'd managed so long, especially given how close together they had been standing. Normally, and these where her words not his, he'd get handsy. He really didn't understand the problem; they where both (normally) far enough along in there time stream and he never had the guts to even touch her in front of her parents. And he doesn't even have to ask to know that she likes it. He suspects that she just likes complaining.

He knew that he'd taken her by surprise - he could practically taste it on her. His hands wiggled themselves between her back and the wall, one burying itself in her hair, the other pulling her closer by her tiny waist. She pulled him just as close, sinking her teeth into his lower lip. She growled softly into the kiss when he nipped at her in return, and she shoved at him, flipping him into the wall this time, one hand staying in his hair until it  
she pulled back away from him, almost gasping for breath, and dropped her head against his collarbone. Her check ended up pressed against a very familiar bowtie.

"You really shouldn't have remembered," he told the ceiling, his chin resting on her hair as his hands circled her waist, drawing absent minded Gallifreyan across the cloth. "It's safer for you to not know me." She growled angrily this time.

"Nice moment," she said bluntly. "Shut up, Sweetie."

"Yes dear." He laughed, glad to have her back in his arms again. He pressed his face into her hair to breathe her in, the hollow feeling in his chest dissipating.

The Time Lord and his wife, so lost in their reunion, almost in a different universe, missed the door handle turn.

* * *

Finaly a reasonably long chapter! Its about time. My two week holiday (and birthday!) stole a lot of time, but a good chunk of this was writen in my hotel room. Plus all these Anti-archaeology joke are killing my heart. :(  
This was going to be two chapters, but I didn't want to give the wrong impression... and it made it longer!  
We're in the home strech now!

The lack of mistakes goes to WholockedAnglophile. Again.

X


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